I am a black British man born in London. I am proud of my Jamaican heritage. I have lived with the label of learning disability since I was a child. I also have cerebral palsy, which affects my walking, my breathing and my voice.
Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, I have led a number of projects in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. I do this work with Sue Ledger, my co-researcher and co-writer who is an Open University visiting research fellow. The work is also supported by Liz Tilley and the university’s Social History of Learning Disability Research Group.
This work has included leading a pilot research project to explore the lives of black people with learning disabilities who were admitted to the old institutions and working with the George Padmore Institute, a black history archive, to make parts of their collection accessible to people with learning disabilities (Community Living, A Light on Black History, winter 2023).
I have also worked with the Pan-African learning disability research network at the University of Cape Town to share cross-cultural experiences of people living in the intersection of race and learning disability.
Intersectionality can help spotlight what people have achieved alongside the barriers encountered
My work in support of Black Lives Matter has focused on the experiences of people living their lives in the intersection or crossover of race and learning disability.
Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American activist and law professor, first used the word intersectionality in the 1980s to help people understand how different parts of a person’s identity can affect the way they are treated by other people and systems.
Some people are treated with respect while others are treated differently and unfairly.
Intersectionality draws attention to the fact that someone can be discriminated against because of more than one thing about them. Some people describe this as a double or multiple discrimination.
I found it helpful to think of intersectionality in terms of overlapping hoops.
Sue and I made large cardboard hoops in different colours. For each hoop, I selected a word or phrase by thinking about my own identity or about the lives and achievements of people with learning disabilities who I knew personally or I had heard about.
Some hoops shared parts of my identity that make me feel strong, carry status and are powerful – these sit alongside parts of my identity that I feel often result in me being treated less respectfully.
As a black man with a learning disability, I find myself in the crossover of these two identities. But I also have cerebral palsy. That makes three hoops, all of which could be a potential barrier.
It is so important to listen to the voices of people who live in this intersection if we are to increase understanding of people’s lives and the barriers they can face.
Here is one story that explains why: I was travelling back from a friend’s house at around 9pm. I got on the bus and sat down. I was listening to my music so I didn’t notice that the bus hadn’t moved from the stop. Someone was trying to grab my attention so I took off my headphones. The person suggested that I should get off the bus so the bus could go.
I walked towards the doors and felt like everyone was staring at me. I was confused. I stepped off the bus and two police officers were waiting to meet me.
They said: “We believe you have been smoking weed.” They asked me to turn out my pockets and so
I did as any good law-abiding citizen would. I never take drugs so there was nothing in my pockets. Once they saw that I wasn’t carrying any drugs, they just left without apologising.
The whole episode made me feel upset and humiliated. I asked myself: had this happened because of my learning disability or because I was black? Or both?
This is just one experience that reveals the day-to-day struggles I encounter as a black person with a learning disability. Have things like this happened because of my learning disability or my skin colour – or because I was on the receiving end of two forms of prejudice? It could be three, if I include having cerebral palsy.
Intersectionality and making the hoops helped me explore multiple strengths too. Crucially, the hoops I made contained many positive words. I chose these words as they evoked what people I knew or had heard about had achieved, spotlighting all the strengths, expertise and talent people with learning disabilities bring.
These stories are often hidden, eclipsed by how society sees us as less than or “different or in terms of what we can’t do – a deficit model of learning disability. And, in the case of black people with learning disabilities, there is often a dual deficit or lack of status that results in a double discrimination.
I am a friend, a son, a brother. Professionally, I am a paid researcher, a published author and a deputy co-chair of theatre company Access All Areas.
There are many other people with learning disabilities from minoritised communities employed in positions of responsibility. Yet, in the media, we rarely see people with learning disabilities given status as leaders or experts.
The idea of intersectionality can also help spotlight what people have achieved and the multiple contributions they make alongside the discrimination and barriers encountered.
That leads on to a big question. This is how to shift society to look through a different kind of intersectional lens – one that respects the multiple capabilities and lived experiences we bring instead of routinely responding to what people all too often see as our combined deficits.
Paul Christian co-wrote this article with Sue Ledger
Sharing work to combat dual prejudice is vital
Paul Christian, Sue Ledger and George Padmore Institute archivist Sarah Garrod are among the experts who share their experiences and perception-shifting work in my forthcoming book, Double Discrimination, writes Saba Salman.
As Christian’s words reflect, while white privilege, unconscious bias and institutional discrimination gained a high profile, learning disabled people of colour are excluded from such debates. We need to consider the combined impact of racism and ableism.
My sister Raana, for example, is not the sort of person most people think of when they hear the word disability. Her learning disability is also something of a taboo in South Asian communities.
Strange though it may sound, it was not until the covid pandemic that I really focused on Raana’s dual identity as a learning disabled person of colour and what that meant for her opportunities and treatment in life.
For two years from 2020, during covid and the lockdowns, I reported on how the pandemic exacerbated the inequalities already experienced by learning disabled people and their families – and how black, Asian and racially minoritised communities were at the greatest risk of death and illness.
Until then, I’d focused on Raana’s support needs through the lens of disability because arguing for help has always been related to her disability.
Christian and Ledger are among the many individuals leading the fight against racism and ableism, challenging limiting systems and perceptions.
Sharing their work and that of others fighting the same prejudices is vital.
Double Discrimination will be published in May 2026 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
